The funny thing is, Karen's scene-stealing outburst also could apply to Megan Mullally, the actress who plays this monied slacker.

Let's take it point by point:

Mullally has no responsibilities. At least, no pressure to carry the series. In its second season, "Will & Grace" (which airs Tuesday at 8".m. CST) stars Eric McCormack and Debra Messing as a gay guy and his best friend, a straight gal. That's where the pressure resides.

Mullally's job is a breeze, too. At least, she makes it look that way in her quick-hit scenes with fellow second-banana Sean Hayes, who plays the flamboyantly effeminate Jack.

And as for the killer bod, well, Mullally has a nice figure.

Three for three!

"I never thought of that before," she said with a laugh. "But I do try to have a no-stress kind of attitude about everything. If it seems like you're having to work or strive, it's just not right, in my book."

Not that she hasn't paid her dues.

Growing up in Oklahoma City, Mullally had a love of music and drama, and studied ballet. After attending Northwestern University, she spent six years working in Chicago theater, then headed for Los Angeles.

She landed the role of a successful author's daughter in a promising new sitcom, "The Ellen Burstyn Show," which premiered on ABC in fall 1986. It lasted two months. This set a dismal precedent.

Then came a drama, "My Life and Times," which lasted two months in 1991, and, for two months the following summer, Mullally was in another sitcom, "Rachel Gunn, RN."

And there was a fourth series she doesn't even mention in her bio. As legendary duds go, "Fish Police," which had three airings in winter 1992, is the toon equivalent of "My Mother, the Car."

"John Ritter played the lead fish, and I was doing the voice for his fish girlfriend," Mullally said. "Invariably we'd have a little spat, and then there'd be a scene where we'd make up and kiss. But when you kiss in animation, you just kiss the back of your hand.

"Well, one day he said, 'This is not working, let me kiss HER.' The director was like, 'All right, go over there and kiss her.' And he put his tongue in my mouth!

"I said, 'I'm sorry, but you can't have your tongue in my mouth for a cartoon!' " Mullally said. "Whenever I remember 'Fish Police,' for some reason that's all I can think of."

Along the way, she was a hit on Broadway, appearing in "Grease" with Rosie O'Donnell and starring in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" opposite Matthew Broderick.

Then came another crack at TV - which Mullally nearly threw away.

"Karen was not quirky in the original pilot script. She was just a bored, rich socialite. I didn't feel like I could bring anything particularly" - she searches for the right word - "emblematic to it."

On the other hand: "I was stone-cold broke. I couldn't pay my rent. But there was no desperation factor. I can't explain why. I was just, 'Ummmm, I don't know.' " Hers was an indifference that prevailed until the final test: auditioning for network brass.

"It was scheduled for 4 o'clock, and at 2:30 I was sitting in my pajamas in my dining room with no makeup on, eating scrambled eggs. I got a call from the casting director: 'Megan, what are you doing?' 'Eating some eggs.'

"But I thought, 'Oh, I'll just go.' And I got it! And the minute the cast had our first read-through, I was so happy."

She got even happier as Karen quickly evolved into a riotous diva Mullally loves playing.

"The thing I like about her is, she's happy as a lark. She's so dismissive and inappropriate, but she never realizes that anything she says or does might be considered offensive."

Other than Jack, in whom she savors a reflection of her own fabulousness, Karen's favorite sparring partner is her Salvadoran maid Rosario, for whom Karen has a stormy regard and an undisguised need.

"Just a maid?" gushed Karen on a recent episode. "That's like saying Pradas are just shoes. Or vodka is just a morning beverage."

But on "Will & Grace," such social-class jibes take a backseat to another source of humor: the modern gay experience.

"At first, we were wondering whether there would be a lot of flak from the religious right," Mullally says. "We were waiting, and it never happened."

Karen, the rich distraction of "Will & Grace," could be one stress-free reason why.